Every car on the street was white. This made Sally think everybody who lived on the street was pragmatic. She wondered how long a cargo utility van could last. A lot of people made their living in them. Plumbers. Electricians. Carpenters.
What lended to these utility vans lasting so long? Sally's friends would get a new car every eight or so years. She couldn't explain why. Or if she did, she would feel lesser of them. So she didn't think about it.
She liked the idea of someone driving a utility van for over 20 years. Racking over 300 thousand miles on it. Not that she would ever do that. She drove a brand new
Tesla
. A red Tesla.
------
Finally Marc Love was out of the desert. He was now surrounded by greenery. Breezing through the country. Windows down. The radio playing country music.
GMC
utility van. He'd gotten it for a deal. Person probably thought he was a woodworker or something.
After the
Hyundai
sank into the grave, Love wanted another no frills car. Even more no frills. An unmarked GMC, white big box van was what fit just the bill. Gas mileage was not good. Not horrible though. He was thinking about this when he stopped by a town that intrigued him due to the name.
Gas City
. What the hell kind of city would name itself Gas City? He chuckled. Then he thought, cities didn't name themselves. There were people in them. And they gave it a name. Maybe not anyone today. But back in the day.
Maybe
gasoline
used to be something people were proud of back in the day. Rather than a commodity that the world burned. 100 million barrels a day. Lord knew Love had burnt his fair share driving across the country. Before he had had a mission. But now he was driving aimlessly.
He had nothing to do. Most people on the road had a life they were waiting to get back to. Love had no such. After pumping gas in Gas City... he just had to. Even though the van had plenty of gas. He had to put a few gallons in. how could you pass a place named Gas City without getting gas?
Then he stopped by a diner. He needed some fuel himself. There was a lot of ruckus in the kitchen. Loud music. Yeling. Something about eggs.
Love ordered eggs when prompted by the
waitress
. He always got eggs and potatoes. And sometimes meat. Depending on how hungry he was. But this time he was intrigued by the kitchen staff yelling EGGS every few minutes. And he saw on the menu The Egg Feast. Ten eggs. Scrambled to perfection. So he got that.
He thought this town had a lot of gimmicks. Gas City. Ten eggs? Love smiled while shaking his head. Then he took a sip of his coffee.
"What's that smile for, hun?"
"Oh nothing. This town is just real nice."
"Oh yeah I love it. Where you from?'
"New York," he lied. He thought in his head that he's from nowhere.
"Well that's the big city for sure. What brings you into town?"
"I had a friend who died. Coming back from the funeral."
"Oh shucks. I'm sorry to hear that. That's always tough to go through."
"It's okay. It was his time. But thank you."
----
In a room in a secret government building, reinforced with concrete, two men discussed an explosion.
"There was an explosion." one of them said.
"In the middle of nowhere?"
"In a place where no explosion should be."
"Mm."
"Satellites show one vehicle leaving the location. That vehicle is no longer moving. It stopped into a moderately sized city. Then there's no details of where the driver went."
"What's it going to take to find the mother fucker?"
"Time. That's it. We'll get him."
----
Behind the glass, Shawn looked at the evening. He had another four or so hours of work ahead of him. But before tackling that he wanted to enjoy this sun. Tried to take a breath. Looked up into the sky and imagined what Cal was thinking or doing right now.
He'd heard that Cal could take a look at him if he wanted. Not that he would be doing that. They were probably keeping the kid busy up there. Shawn was already counting the days until Cal would return. Maybe the two of them could live in the same city.